Two Israeli police officers who were shot yesterday when armed assailants opened fire in Jerusalem’s Old City have died from their wounds, authorities said.
Police confirmed the deaths, with the three Arab Israeli attackers also shot dead by security forces after fleeing to a sensitive holy site in Jerusalem’s Old City.
The two officers died in hospital, Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
The incident was among the most serious in recent years in Jerusalem and was likely to heighten Israeli-Palestinian tensions.
No details were immediately available on the identity of the attackers.
They were killed at the site known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as Temple Mount, the location of regular clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police, but gunfire rarely occurs there.
The site includes the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock.
A number of attacks have occurred in Jerusalem’s Old City in the past few months, but they have often involved knives.
Police locked down the area and the al-Aqsa compound at the holy site was closed for Friday prayers. Gates leading to the site were sealed off.
Video being shared on social media appeared to show gunshots ringing out at the holy site.
“I was standing here and then I heard the shooting. I thought it was fireworks, but then I saw the police coming from everywhere,” said Basem Badawi, a 60-year-old water seller in the Old City.
Haram al-Sharif and Temple Mount is deemed the third-holiest site in Islam and the most sacred in Judaism.
It is central to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with Palestinians fearing Israel might seek to assert further control over it.
It is located in east Jerusalem, occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed in a move never recognized by the international community.
Jews are allowed to visit, but not pray there.
The site is administered by the Islamic Waqf organization.
Waqf officials said its guards at the compound had been detained by Israeli police following the attack.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday said the compound was shut to make sure there are no weapons there.
He said that the status quo governing the site “will be preserved.”
Additional reporting by AP
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese